


nice to see you!!

by starrylitme



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Chance Meetings, Despair, Introspection, Knives, M/M, Memory Loss, Mental Instability, Minor Violence, Post-Canon, SHSL Rare Pair Week, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 11:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4623012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrylitme/pseuds/starrylitme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To think the normal nobody Naegi-kun could become SHSL Hope was something else. That he also shone with the hopeful light he had been yearning for all this time in this dark despairing world was something else. It's almost too much for him to handle.</p>
<p>And maybe Komaeda should stop reminiscing about someone who doesn't remember him anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nice to see you!!

**Author's Note:**

> Oh good, an actual weird fic rather than one that was just weird to write. Thanks Komaeda. Knew I could count on ya.
> 
> Honestly I had the least idea of what I was doing for the last two days of RPW just that they actually involved Komaeda pairs so this isn't that big of a surprise. It's kinda spacey, but that's suitable, considering the circumstances.
> 
> The violence here against actual people (robots don't count) is non-graphic if not implicit, in case anyone's concerned. Also I'm not fully accounting for the entirety of DRAE in this fic even though there are references to elements from the game. Sorry about that.

To him, the means never mattered. Sweat, tears, blood—whatever had to be shed to achieve the dream he wanted, he’d be fine with. It had always been so simple to him.

Others struggled, of course, and some of them succumbed to despair. They were too weak, they couldn’t handle the situation anyway, and he’d just walk over their fallen bodies without missing a beat. He barely spared them a thought anymore, and cheerfully scoffed at those who did.

It was rather cruel of him—fairly wretched—but what more could someone except from such a lowly creature barely deserving of the space used to take up with his very despicable presence?  He didn’t mind any of that either—he’d long since come to terms with it. Someone like him, after all, could only be so much.

He has similar expectations towards Naegi Makoto when they met.

_Small_ , he thought. _Soft._ But, befitting of his given name, he was very _sincere_.

Always smiling, Naegi was someone easy to keep close, unlike himself. He was someone others smiled at too, unlike himself. Someone who should have been a _slight_ , should have been at least as lesser as the soil which grew the true symbols of hope, managed to be someone so _significant_.

He managed to, somehow, become someone shining so very _brightly_ that it was as though the entire world had gone dead silent, all so his speech about hope could stand out all the more. Finally, in this dark world of despair, there was a light of hope bright enough to bask in.

Just his fingers on the screen was enough to have him shaking, eyes locked onto that person he once was sure was a nobody— _with his mousy brown hair and unassuming stature_ —resolute and defiant to the point where even _she_ couldn’t handle it. Yet it was still him, still the _Naegi-kun_ who he had politely yet distantly interacted with a few times between classes. Still the same person who sent them both tumbling down the stairs together and had their first conversation with on the way to the nurse’s office, joints and head aching, but still smiling at one another, most likely to not worry the other.

“Naegi-kun...” He was giddy, practically pressing his forehead to the screen in spite of how much it hurt his eyes and how little justice it must have done to the grand, incredible scene before him. “Naegi-kun, _Naegi-kun_...”

It wasn’t enough. If only he were there in person. But it was still so bright, so brilliant, so **_beautiful_** —

But, when he watched the execution of Enoshima Junko, smiling with her victory sign in the air as she was crushed to bits, it was like he once again fell into that black.

* * *

_Why did he follow her in the first place? Had he truly fallen in despair?_

“No, I wanted to destroy her myself—I hated that girl more than anything. Please don’t misunderstand.”

_But he had still done horrible things for her sake, not hope’s sake. Maybe he had fallen after all—someone like him—it’s not that big of a surprise._

“I could never be SHSL Hope after all...”

_Then what about Naegi?_

“Naegi-kun? I thought he’d be the first to die.”

_But Maizono didn’t kill him. She didn’t even succeed in framing him. Naegi managed to figure her out—her and Kuwata. And then he proceeded to figure everything out, all until that wretched Monokuma cheated and tried to frame Kirigiri..._

“That Naegi-kun took the fall for Kirigiri-san truly was a wonderful thing! Such a brave act! As expected of a stepping stone! Good work, Naegi-kun!”

_But Naegi didn’t die then and there, did he? And it wasn’t Kirigiri who defeated her in the end, was it?_

“...Not a stepping stone, but... SHSL Hope...? Naegi-kun? A SHSL Lucky?”

_Naegi’s luck may have saved him once, but it wasn’t luck that triumphed against her. It was his determination, his optimism, his...hope, right? Right?_

“Naegi-kun...is just a normal guy... There’s nothing special about him and yet...”

_Naegi succeeded where all those talented failed. He had seen so_ many _of the talented fall before her, but Naegi never wavered in their confrontation. Naegi shone with a light he had been waiting his entire life for. The same Naegi who had been his amicable underclassmen._

“Naegi-kun...”

_SHSL Hope..._

* * *

SHSL Hope.

SHSL Despair.

Which was he again?

Ah, right. _Despair_.

_Despair, Despair, Despair, Despair, **Des** —_

He bit hard into the cloth he shoved into his mouth, tightening the restraint keeping his hand flat against the table. Staring hard at his wrist, he readied the blade.

_I can’t become SHSL Hope. I’m not normal like Naegi-kun is. But if I can take her power as SHSL Despair—ah, well, I wonder if a wretch like me could truly compare to a wretch like her._

At some point in his life, hadn’t he used this hand to support Naegi before? And, when they had fallen together, and Naegi was apologizing profusely for knocking him down, hadn’t this been the hand that he used to take Naegi’s to help himself up?

Any normal person would be horrified by his actions. Part of him wondered if Naegi would also worry. Someone as kind as Naegi—he’d be pained, wouldn’t he, that Komaeda would do this?

_Then again, it’s not like I’d be in Naegi-kun’s thoughts anyway—_ she _already wiped me away from his memories like the worthless_ **trash** _I—_

He wasn’t even thinking anymore as he brought the blade down.

* * *

In a world as dark as his, he really has not much use for his thoughts anymore. Even with the defeat of her, he finds himself yearning more and more for that blinding light even as the world is steadily regaining its healthier hues. It should affect him, move him to tears even, but he’s still on autopilot as he moves through the building, loosely gripping a war knife in one hand and letting the other dang uselessly by his side, clad in a tacky mitten.

The only lilt comes from the giggling of the bear units, their muttering and blandly programmed quips. Not to mention the squeals they make when spotting someone new to claw, to kill. He’s trailing around the corner and already one giddily spots him, charging and exclaiming.

Not missing a beat, he shoves that knife deep into the bear’s red eye, stilling it in its tracks, shoving it to the ground with his foot as he pulls the blade back out and sighs.

“They’re still everywhere, huh...? It’s like she really won’t die, even though it’s not like I can ever see her again...”

But at this point, he’s just drifting as well, numb to everything but the pain in his arm. Even now, he’s still fruitlessly fighting her, but at least at this point, he knows she can be defeated. He just has to persevere until the moment her world of darkness completely dies out.

It’s strange then, isn’t it, that he feels like he’s still stuck in that fog that came about when the world fell. Even though he’s seen her fall—has gazed at _Naegi-kun_ with nothing sort of reverence and wonder when she was scrambling back and stammering.

_Naegi-kun. Naegi-kun._

He might never get to see her again, but _Naegi-kun_ on the other hand...

_Ah, but what am I even thinking?_ He wondered giddily, shakily stumbling over the sparking, unmoving body of the Monokuma unit. _It’s not like someone like me even deserves to breathe the same air._

But his luck works in such funny ways, doesn’t it? With all the trouble he went through just to get this far, at some point, one way or another, there had to be a form of compensation.

Sometimes that form would be the very familiar brunet he spots across the other side of the corridor, going still and dead silent save for his breathing and the giggling of that bear—the ongoing sparking of the unit he stopped—and letting the knife slip from his fingers to clatter against the tiles.

Naegi, he noticed, was holding one of those megaphone guns, dressed in a refined suit. _Future Foundation_ , he recognized, vaguely remembering hearing that it was them who picked up the survivors from that broadcasted mutual killings. Naegi was being careful, had an expression of unease, and was looking and listening for those bears...

When those soft hazels fell on his paralyzed form hopelessly standing there.

Naegi may have said something, but he didn’t hear it, all he could _see_ was just how bright—how _blinding_ Naegi was, even with only the dull broken lights of the building overhead. How his own worthless gray-green eyes just couldn’t stand it to the point they tore away and he found himself running, fleeing from the Naegi who had inhabited his thoughts for _months_ now.

The same Naegi he had lunch with once. There had been an accident involving his own, but Naegi offered to share his. That was probably one of the most pleasant conversations he ever had in his life. Even though Naegi wasn’t anything special, he could have been moved to tears.

His feet are slamming against the tiles and he’s scrambling as he runs, panting and heart pounding like a terrified rodent. Like a rodent that typically hid in shadows—one that wasn’t _used_ to the light. He had been living in a dark world of despair for so long that Naegi’s hopeful light was simply just—

Far _too_ **_much_**

It’s pathetic how he’s hiding, curled up in one of the corners where it’s a dead end, pulling his hood over his head and shaking as he’s sitting, knees close and holding that covered hand close, rubbing over it with his own, whispering to his heart to just be _still_.

Monokuma’s laugh still rings across the building, still taunting him—she’s still taunting him...

“H...H-Hey...?”

Komaeda flinches, turning slowly to _him_ , leaning against that corner and panting. Exhausted. _He_ hadn’t seriously ran after him, _had he_?

_Ah, not good. Not good not good not_ **good** _—_

“A-Are you...” _He_ manages to raise _his_ gaze, still tired but still clearly worried. “Are you _alright_?”

_Someone like me being in this_ valuable _space—the misfortune from before won’t balance this out at all! If anything, it’s going to be **catastrophic** —_

“I’m not... I’m not going to hurt you...” Slurring _his_ words a bit, shaking a bit too. “I’m here to help. I promise.”

_He— **Naegi-kun** —_

“Come on.” He was offering his hand, he was smiling at him so warmly and so gently. “Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

_He’s overflowing with_ **hope** _._

It should have been too much for him to handle. And _yet_ , Komaeda found himself taking that hand, letting himself be pulled up to his feet, and keeping that covered hand close as his head hung low, trying so hard not to shakily smile.

_Ah, but, it’s not like Naegi-kun knows..._

“Right,” Naegi began, tugging his hand a bit. “So let’s get...” For some reason, he trailed off, his tone turning questioning. “...going?”

Slowly, his hand was released and just as Komaeda meekly raised his gaze to meet Naegi’s, he saw, so very _painfully_ , how hazels widened with something that could only be recognition.

“Komaeda-kun,” he says, disbelieving. “You are... Komaeda-senpai from HPA, aren’t you? D...Do you remember?”

_Too much._ Far _too **much**._

And yet it was like for once his world truly _was_ bright, his own face lighting up with a smile falling into place as he exclaimed, full of the happiness he hadn’t felt in ages.

“Naegi-kun, it’s so _good_ to see you again!”


End file.
